Gender equality, a challenge for Cooperatives

Mar 18, 2019

The oñatiarras Cristina Madina and Maixabel Madinagoitia have worked for about 40 years at ULMA. In the 1970s, married women were forced to leave their jobs in cooperatives. At ULMA, these two women were the first to fight to get back to work after marriage.

- How did you start working at ULMA?There was a lot of work in the 60s and 70s, and many women came to ULMA to work. We started at the Otadui office with the hope of becoming partners. At that time, women who married often stayed at home. We did not want to limit ourselves to housework and looking after our families. We really liked working at ULMA and we were part of the cooperative. We looked for other ways to organize housework and childcare and we presented a request to the cooperative bodies to continue working after marriage.